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What God Has Joined Together

S (Scripture): Mark 10:1 Then Jesus left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan River. Again crowds gathered to him, and again, as was his custom, he taught them. 2 Then some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5 But Jesus said to them, “He wrote this commandment for you because of your hard hearts. 6 But from the beginning of creation he made them male and female. 7 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, 8 and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

10 In the house once again, the disciples asked him about this. 11 So he told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

O (Observation): While many may use this text as a prohibition against same-sex marriage, I see this through the eyes of v. 9 above: “What God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Jesus refers to the creation stories in Genesis, and the idea of procreation and the physical coming together to make procreation possible. Yet Jesus focuses on divorce and the brokenness of humanity that makes divorce a reality.

If two have come together, with God’s blessing, nothing should separate them. Moses created a certificate of divorce because human relationships can be fractured, and people need grace and protection. Divorce was never part of the picture…it came because relationships can end up broken.

A (Application): So…this is a complex issue and I’m only giving a simple response today.

I know folks in same-sex relationships who have married, or plan to marry. Now that same-sex marriage is legal in all states in our country, we need to come to some clarity on the issue in our respective denominations, churches, and homes.

The question of legality is settled. The question of blessing by churches is still in the air for some.

My hope is that as couples come together to commit to one another, before God and the gathered people, that God would bless those who seek that blessing…and that what God has joined together…no one would separate.